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The door from the party bursts open behind me, music and laughter flooding out into the bar. I turn and see Ren standing there, scanning the small crowd until his eyes land on me. He walks with purpose, but his eyes are still searching the crowd until he gets to me and takes my face in his hands.
“I’m so fucken sorry babe,” he pleads. “I didn’t know he was going to be here.”
Panic turns to anger, and I shake my head from his grasp. “You didn’t know? You didn’t know?”
Because he doesn’t get it. He doesn’t listen. He wouldn’t know. I’m an idiot. What was I thinking?
“I told you this was going to happen,” I say, still frantic.
I need a way out. An exit. Away. I need to get away.
“This was my father trying to do right. He doesn’t’ know the details, but I’ve put him in his place now and this will not happen again. No more stunts like this. My father never meant to hurt you, Lilly.”
Is he out of his ever-loving mind.
No more stunts? Sergei is all about shit like this. He lives for shit like this.
“Of course, he didn’t mean to!” My eyes narrow, my voice filled with anger. “Because this was all Sergei. This wasn’t an accident. This wasn’t to keep the peace. This is a warning.”
To me. My countdown. My warning to submit or pay.
“He is a cocky motherfucker, but he was never going to do anything here, he wouldn’t dare try it,” he says through gritted teeth, his own anger barely contained and dismissing everything I’ve been trying to warn him about.
“You have no idea who he is, or what he just said to me, and what it means because you refuse to listen to me.”
And like he just realised Sergei already has done what he needed to, he looks around scanning the crowd. “Where’s Nico?”
That’s it.
I can’t
With that, I push past him, furious, storming straight to the door and pushing it open. The hall is still full of family and people I have no idea who they are, so I keep going until I’m out of the room and into the foyer. There’s still a long line for the rest room and I have no idea where to go, where it’s safe. I turn in circles, my heart pounding in my ears, scanning somewhere I can go and let this all out. Then, out of everyone that I could possibly see, Dante stands at an open door, nodding for me to follow. Relief floods through me, and I storm straight to it, walking inside a small banquet room. The door closes behind me, anger still raging inside. I need to hit something or break something. Dante just watches me as I pace, leaning against the wall, taking a joint from his jacket pocket and lighting it.
“He’s not listening!” I explode, the fury pouring out of me.
He takes a long drag and holds it in, taking his time before exhaling. “Yeah. No Shit. He doesn’t listen to me either.”
He offers me a hit, but I shake my head. That’s the last thing I need right now when my life is hanging in the balance. He walks off to a small bar against the wall and leans over it.
“He is not going to stop. Sergei is never going to stop. And Ren thinks he plays by the same rules, but he doesn’t. He doesn’t care at all.” I keep ranting, keep pacing like a caged animal desperate to get out.
Dante walks over with a bottle of tequila, handing it to me. That one I do accept.
And drink.
Then rant.
“He’s Crazy.”
Drink.
“He’s sick.”
Drink.
“You don’t understand, and he won’t listen to me!”
This time I take a long, gulping mouthful, until I find it being pulled out from my hands. Dante takes it off me, taking a swig himself.
